The post-session Internet advertising system of the present invention is a system and method for delivering displays to viewers browsing displays with platforms, for exchanging traffic between platforms, and for accurately tracking focus time on display content.
Web pages can be created using Hypertext Mark-up Language (“HTML”) and Extensible Mark-up Language (“XML”). HTML is a text-based set of instructions (known as “tags”) that describe the layout of elements on a Web page. HTML can also be used to create “links” (generally, a highlighted word, phrase or graphic image that points to a target such as another Web page) on the World Wide Web. XML consists of a set of tags that abstractly describe data, which can be translated into HTML using standard tools. In addition, a Web page can be divided into subpages (using Frames, an HTML extension). A frameset is the set of subpages that together comprise a Web page. (For example, a Web page may be divided horizontally creating a frameset of two subpages comprising the top and bottom half of the Web page). In addition to its use in creating Web pages, HTML and XML can be used to create advertising for the Internet. The developer or maintainer of a Web site can insert HTML or XML code in their Web pages so that when potential customers view the Web page an advertisement and a link to another Web site is displayed.
Web pages and Internet advertising may be enhanced by small programs written in the Java language that are built into a Web page to perform a specific function (such as displaying an animation), often referred to as “applets.” In addition, scripting languages such as JavaScript or VBScript are used to enhance the capabilities of Web pages by performing functions that are beyond the scope of HTML and XML, such as popping up special windows in response to mouse clicks. Scripting languages include an event driven model responsive to changes in a client's state and an Application Programmer's Interface for defining custom behaviors to be followed in response to such “events.”
Another technique often used by Web site developers and Internet advertisers is to place a text file on the hard disc of a client when the user visits a Web site. These text files, referred to as “cookies,” are retrieved and read on subsequent visits that a user makes to the Web site. Cookies can be used to track the behavior of site visitors.
The economic potential of the Internet is enormous, but the medium is still in its early stages of development. Revenue is directly proportional to the volume of qualified potential customers (“traffic”) that reach and view a commercial Web site. Each visit (often referred to as a “hit”) to a commercial Web site has economic value. Thus, the primary goal of Internet marketing is generating traffic. A secondary goal is to get potential customers to make purchases or otherwise use a commercial Web site (i.e., “capture traffic”). Traffic is more difficult to generate than it is to capture. Further, investment made to generate traffic produces a greater economic return than investment made to capture traffic. A company can a spend a lot of money on effective Web site design so that potential customers will have a rewarding experience and thus a higher inclination to make a purchase once the customer has reached the Web site. But investment in Web site design is wasted unless the site is actually visited. A third goal is “branding,” or increasing consumer awareness or recognition of a brand.
In order to meet these goals, most Internet businesses use interrupting advertisements such as pop-up windows, or space consuming advertisements (or “real estate” consuming advertisements) such as banner advertisements, link exchanges, and banner exchanges. Other Internet businesses use alternative advertising methods such as bulk e-mail. Although interrupting advertisements guarantee that a user will see the advertisement for at least a split second, if only to locate the icon used to close the window, these interrupting advertisements are particularly offensive to potential customers because they force the user's attention to be diverted. Most users simply close the window of an interrupting advertisement. Space consuming advertisements, on the other hand, are so pervasive that they have become “white noise.” Usually, a viewer focuses his attention on the information he needs from the Web page and ignores the space consuming advertisement. Alternative advertising methods are similarly problematic.
With pop-up window advertising, a separate window of a Web browser is displayed “on top” or “in front” of the Web page being viewed. The advertisement, which may be larger, smaller, or the same size as a banner advertisement, is displayed in the new browser window. Pop-up window advertising has the advantage (for the Web site designer) of displaying an advertisement without having to change the layout of the Web page displaying the advertisement. But potential customers commonly consider the pop-up aspect disruptive and annoying.
Banner advertising, a space consuming advertising method, is currently the primary method of advertising on the World Wide Web. Banner advertising relies on HTML and some of the techniques used to create a Web site. Site maintainers insert HTML code in their Web pages that causes a small advertisement (approximately 0.5″ times 2″ on the average screen) to appear in a frame on the Web page, i.e., a “banner advertisement.” The HTML code also contains a link to another site. In short, when potential customers view a Web site with banner creating HTML code, a banner advertisement and link are displayed on the Web page. The more traffic a Web sites has, the more it can charge for displaying banner advertisements. The reason is that a banner advertisement placed on a high volume site generates a lot of traffic for the advertised Web site. In theory, this is advantageous for both parties. But market research shows that as use of the Internet becomes widespread, banner advertisements are becoming less effective. The average potential customer is becoming jaded because banner advertisements appear on almost every Web site. A measure of the effectiveness of Internet marketing is the CTR, or click-through ratio. CTR is the ratio of the number of times an advertisement is exposed to the number of hits generated by the advertisement when viewers “click through” to the advertised site. The trend is that CTRs for banner advertisements are dropping.
Link exchanges are another space consuming advertising method for generating Web traffic. A link exchange is an arrangement whereby a first Web site puts a link on its site to a second Web site. In exchange, the second Web site places a link on its site to the first Web site. In addition to exchanging links, a fee may be paid by one site to the other. Each link to the other site is generally placed in a prominent place on the referring Web site. Effectively, a link exchange is a mechanism for sharing traffic between two Web sites. Alternatively, links may not be exchanged. Instead, a first Web site pays a second Web site to put a link to it on the second Web site. Link exchange advertising has the advantage of lower cost than other advertising methods. In fact, a link exchange may be free. In addition, any consideration paid for a link exchange or link placement is generally much lower than that for banner advertisements. A drawback of link exchanges is that their effectiveness varies. The effectiveness depends on where the link is placed, whether there is an image associated with it (thus blurring the line between a link exchange and a banner advertisement), and how much traffic each site receives from other forms of marketing. Market research shows that CTRs on link exchanges are consistently lower than CTRs for banner advertising.
Banner exchanges are a hybrid of banner advertising and link exchanges. A Web site joins a Web site syndicate and adds special banner advertisement HTML code to its Web site. The special HTML code causes a banner advertisement for and a link to a syndicate member Web site to be displayed. Typically, the banner advertisement varies so that an advertisement for each syndicate member is alternately displayed. A syndicate may be joined for free or for a nominal fee. In exchange for displaying banner advertisements, banner advertisements for the member's Web site are displayed on the Web sites of other members. In addition, the company managing the exchange syndicate will usually have paid advertisers as members. Fees paid by such advertisers represent a source of revenue for the company managing the exchange syndicate. A limitation of banner exchanges is that they are still fundamentally banner advertisements and as such are experiencing the same declining CTRs as conventional banner advertisements.
Bulk e-mail is an alternative advertising method that has a reasonable return on investment but potential customers generally regard it unfavorably. If the bulk e-mail message is read, it may effectively generate traffic. But it is far more likely that the potential customer immediately identifies the message as a “UBE” (unsolicited bulk e-mail), sends complaints to the sender and to their connection provider, and deletes the message unopened and unread.
Two events that are important to understanding the experience of a viewer browsing the Web are the “focus” and “blur” events. Typically, a viewer accesses the Internet using a platform, such as a Web browser, on media, such as a computer. For example, a viewer accessing the Internet using the Internet Explorer™ Web browser as a platform on media consisting of a computer running the Windows™ operating system observes the platform as appearing in a window. Focus and blur describe states of a window. A focus event occurs if a window is selected so that it may currently receive input from a viewer. A blur event occurs if focus is removed from a window. While it is possible to simultaneously have multiple windows open, only one window may have focus at any time. If a window is in the focus state, it always fully visible (i.e., it appears “on top” of other open windows) and is sometimes referred to as the “active” window. Windows that are in the blur state are said to be in the “background” and are at least partially obscured by the window in the focus state. A viewer “clicks on” or otherwise selects a window to create a focus event. Alternatively, a computer program may cause a focus event. A focus event may also be referred to as a “view triggering event.”
With known Web marketing techniques there is no way of knowing if an advertisement has been seen by the potential customer. A banner advertisement, pop up window, or other Internet advertisement may appear at length in an active window and be fully visible, or may appear only momentarily in an active window and be at least partially obscured for most of the period it is displayed. The time an advertisement is displayed in an active window is called “focus time.” Known techniques do not verify the focus time of an advertisement that has been delivered to a potential customer.